Dalit atrocities are becoming nightmare for BJP in Gujarat

Dalit atrocities are becoming nightmare for BJP in Gujarat

The Dalits of Gujarat are high on the issue relating to atrocities on them in the state of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The Dalit community gathered in large numbers for a protest march on Sunday as per the calls of the Dalit leaders. Gujarat, being a stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the news and being criticized after a video of four Dalit boys being slammed, stripped and flogged for skinning a dead cow went viral. Since then, a series of protests and foot march have been organized to condemn the incident. The opposition is taking the political advantage of the situation stating that this is the true model of development of Gujarat where minorities are persecuted and tortured.

These recent incidents have become a nightmare for Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), as, before this, the party was eyeing to woo the voters ahead of the assembly elections in UP and other states in 2017.

The incident of flogging was supposed to have conducted by gau rakshaks in Una. Meanwhile, thousands of Dalits gathered in Ahmedabad where the Dalit leaders had put the BJP government in Gujarat on notice seeking strong measures against the people involved in the incident. “We want everyone who thrashed Dalits in Una to be arrested under Prevention of Anti-Social Activity Act (PASA). If they come out on bail, the government must extern them from five districts,” said Dalit leader and convener of the event, Jignesh Mevani. They have put forward a slew of demands in front of the state Government and urged all the Dalits to take a pledge to stay away from their traditional way of disposing of the dead cattle.

“To give a strong message to the government, I urge all Dalits to discontinue the work of disposing of dead animals. I also want you to take a pledge of discontinuing the work of cleaning sewer lines. We no longer wish to do this work and want the government to allot agriculture land to us so that we can live a respectable life,” he said. “If atrocities on Dalits do not stop, we will show our strength in the 2017 Assembly polls,” Mevani asserted. “This agitation will continue till the government accepts our demands. If the government can sit with Patels and accept their demands, it should do the same with Dalits and call them for a meeting,” Mevani said.

They had announced a foot march from Ahmedabad to Una between August 5 and August 15 and plan to gather in large numbers in Una on August 15 to observe and “feel independence” there.

They also referred to the statement of Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh that PM Modi was very hurt and upset over the Una incident, Mevani spoke to the gathering that: “I want to ask Rajnathji, if during his governance in Gujarat (between 2001 and 2014), did Modi visit a single Dalit family of Gujarat which faced atrocity? If the answer is yes, we will wind up our protest program.”

Several issues relating to Dalits wee raised and discussed in the gathering and the former IPS officer Rahul Sharma said, “This fight is against a particular ideology, which believes in creating rifts between different communities and religions. To bring this movement ahead, I suggest to hold a foot march from here in coming days and reach Una on August 15. We will celebrate our independence by hoisting a flag in Una on August 15”.

The suggestion was quickly accepted by the gathering and it decided to march and culminate in Una on August 15 after covering a total distance of almost 380 km.

All this is very disheartening and shocking for BJP as the party leaders failed to fill a small hall in Agra to welcome its Dhamma Chetra Yatra. The event was also scheduled to be attended by the Party’s national President Amit Shah but was cancelled after the speculations of Dalits may protest in front of Shah at the event, which would surely be an un-called situation.

All this, will surely going to affect the elections in 2017 in UP and Punjab and will put BJP on a backfoot.

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